Wednesday, January 13, 2010

"What can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence"- Ludwig Wittgenstein

These words beautifully explain the concept behind the so called "Private Language Argument", one of the most important topics of 20th century philosophy. The seeds of this thought were immanent in the ideas of John Locke(1632-1704) and Gottlob Frege(1848-1925), but was fully developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein(1889-1952), perhaps the greatest 20th century philosopher.

In the simplest words, the "argument" is that "the concept of a private language is improbable". By "private language" what is meant is "a language that is private to an individual and hence understandable by nobody else".

This simple looking argument has deep philosophical consequences. On the surface level, the immediate implication is that all language is socially constructed and can never be a subjective or private phenomenon. But the more important consequence is deeper, and has been explained in two different ways.

The first and more popular of the two, popularized initially by Rudolf Carnap(1891-1970) is that, the "argument" invalidates or at least looks with great suspicion, the validity of the "fully subjective nature of consciousness" (often called in philosophical terms as qualia). And this in turn has major implications for the "Mind-Body Problem" in philosophy, and hence religion and spirituality. As a result non-objective and non-empirical sources of language and thought as well as most of metaphysics is considered invalid.

With regard to "Mind-Body Problem", Carnap's interpretation of "Private Language Argument" shifts the advantage to the empirical/materialistic side. In other words the "argument" supports the primality of the "body" with respect to "mind", and more or less rejects metaphysics and mysticism as valid sources of knowledge.

The second interpretation, which seems to be the one favored by Wittgenstein himself, is that, "Private Language Argument", doesn't invalidate metaphysics and subjectivity, rather it enforces a limit on the "natural sciences" and particularly rationalism. Wittgenstein believed that philosophy should start where "natural sciences" end.

Prelims:-BIOS finds the boot device and loads the Master Boot Record (MBR). The first 512 bytes in MBR contains the "primary boot loader". Out of the 512 bytes, 446 bytes contains the "primary boot loader" proper, the next 64 bytes contains a partition table, and last two bytes will contain the magic number OxAA55 which acts as a simple validation check.

29 AD Crucifixion of ChristSaint Paul The most important person for Christianity after Christ himself. His three missionary journeys. Martyred at Rome by beheading.200 to 400 Christianization (first Arianism then official Christianity) of Germanic tribes300 to 600 Decline of Roman Empire, Rise of primitive Germanic tribes as the central European power. Decline of classical learning, start of Dark Ages.Saint Augustine Perhaps the most important person for official Christianity after Christ & Paul. Played a central role in defending the Church against heretic & pagan philosophers. Thereby laid down the basics of what was to become Christendom. His autobiography "Confessions" was a masterpiece.600 to 1200 Dark Ages. Primitive Germanic Kings and a corrupt Catholic church as the power centers of European politics. A period of revisionism & backwardness in Europe.570 AD Birth of Muhammad Prophet of Islam632 AD Muhammad dies632 AD Muslim forces lead by Khalid Al-Walid (nicknamed by Prophet Muhammad as ... or Sword of Allah) win Battle of Yarmouk against Christian Byzantine forces, captures large parts of Syria & Iraq; thereby giving Islamic forces an opening out of Arabian main land (decisive in later Islamic expansion)630 to 1200 rise and expansion of Islam as a global religious, political and cultural forceIslamic forces vs Persian Empire711 Islamic forces invades the Iberian penisula (southern Portugal & Spain)Islamic forces invades the Indian subcontinent. Raja Dahir defeated by Muslim forces lead by732 Battle of Poiters: Charles Martel defeats Muslim forces thereby preventing the Islamization of Europe800 to 1000 Islamic Golden Age: Revival of classical Greek learning by Arabs, Many distinguished scholars & scientists in the Islamic world.1100-1200 Crusades

Ibn SinaIbn RashidIbn KhaldounAl GhazaliOmar KhayamAl-Khwarizmi

Classical Greek learning and knowledge from China and India enter Europe via the Byzantine Empire and Muslim traders.The Great Enlightenment & Rennainssance in EuropeMartin Luther rises against the Catholic ChurchProtestant Reformation & Catholic Counter-Reformation helps to open the eyes of a Western Christendom from its self imposed Darkness

Byzantian Empire ends at the hands of invading Ottoman Turks. Seige of Constatinople (then renamed as Istanbul). Migration of Greek scholars to Europe (one of the main factors for Europen enligtenment)Mughal Empire1490 Defeat and explusion of Moors (Muslim rulers & communities) from Cordoba (Southern Spain)1492 Columbus discovers Americas1498 Vasco Da Gama find sea route to IndiaHernando CortezFransico Pizzaro1500 to 1950 European expansion and colonialization of the worldBattle of Lepanto Decisive European naval victory over Ottoman Turks (a significant event for European control of seas & colonialization)Francis BaconCopernicusGalileo GalileeJohannes KeplerIsaac NewtwonRene DescartesImmanuel KantKarl MarxCharles DarwinAlbert EinsteinJohn Von NuemannAlan TuringSchrodinger, Heisenberg, Bohr, De Broglie, ... Quantum MechanicsInvention of Transistor (Jack Kilby, Brattain, ...)ARPANET the later Internet1914-1918 First World War1939-1945 Second World WarKorean WarVietnam War1989 Tim Berners-Lee creates what is to become the World Wide Web

The Buddhist theory of "Pratityasamutpada" and the Scottish philosopher David Hume's (1711-1776) "Bundle theory" &"Causation theory" have an interesting parallel, both lead to the impermanence of the Soul or individual self.

This is a radical shift from what appears to commonsense and that held by most religions of the world. Be it the dualistic traditions of everyday religion or the monist spirituality of mysticism (sufism, advaita, Christian mysticism); almost every one of them assumes the continuity and identity of the Self/Soul.

Both "Pratityasamutpada" and Hume's "Bundle theory", implies that the individual Self/Soul is nothing more than a series of connected sensations, and its the combination of "memory" & "imagination" creates the illusion of a permanent Self/Soul.

The credit should go to great Buddhist thinkers like Nagarjuna (2nd or 3rd century AD) who developed the original Buddhist theory of "impermanence" to an formidable philosophical argument. Though Hume' got the same ideas centuries later, he still deserves a great deal of respect for coming up with these ideas independently and for being the first in the Western world to popularize these ideas.

This perspective looks more probable than that of a permanent self/soul. In fact the possibility of an impermanent Soul/Self is the more scientific viewpoint, as it does away with the "Ghost in the machine" hypothesis of Soul. Soul/Self is no more a non-material "ghost" residing in the material "machine" of the body; but rather its an after effect or by product of the material body in its material environment.

Ego has a central place to play in all human action, and ego is rooted in the concept of I/Self/Soul. But if the very concept of Self is nothing more than the totality of one's experiences and sensations projected through the prism of imagination, what we call as "I" or "Self" loses its subjective nature and becomes objectified.

One major implication of this thought process is that there is no Soul in the usual sense in which we use the term. "No Soul" implies that no part of us survives our physical bodily death. This further implies the improbability of life-after-death, heaven/hell, Moksha, etc.

The Buddhist view point however still holds on to reincarnation in the sense that a set of actions/sensations/thoughts in a particular birth can act as causes to a set of effects in some other birth, thereby maintaining the continuity of Karma. This however is not scientifically possible.